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Media Prevalent at Practice

Published

Mike Trudell

on October 27, 2008

in Practice News and Training Camp

. Closed

Anchors, reporters, cameramen, photographers, beat writers, columnists, producers, interns…

At least 27 media members swarmed around Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, Pau Gasol and four other Lakers in the final practice before Tuesday’s much-anticipated season opener.

Amidst the media search for starting lineup news, some very interesting questions - and answers - appeared. For example, Phil Jackson was asked if his team’s depth is its best quality. Instead of taking the bait and simply praising his second unit as he often (deservedly) does, Jackson said that the best thing about the Lakers is the “supreme talent” of Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. Jackson explained that having superstars who have the ability to simply do things better than their opponents is what truly transcends in basketball. Sure, it’s great to have depth of talent, but it’s not doing much good without super talent. Makes you think about Jordan, Pippen, Shaq and Kobe from Jackson’s title runs. He gets it.

Among Bryant’s most interesting comments was his description of why Jackson spent extra time on defense this preseason: It’s a young team. Bryant explained that on L.A.’s three-peat squad, there were a number of vets who already understood team defensive concepts (Shaq, Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, Robert Horry, etc.). Ditto for his Bulls teams (Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and so on). But this Lakers team is young, and needs more prodding in that area, because truly picking up defensive rotations takes years. Bryant dismissed that defense was simply about effort, saying that effort can be fruitless if not given to a solid team defensive concept.

As always, you can check the videos on our Video Page.

Bynum’s B-day: Time Stamp

Published

Mike Trudell

on October 27, 2008

in Andrew Bynum, Features, Miscellaneous and Training Camp

. 0 Comments

To: Andrew
From: Mike
Subject: Ten things happening when you turned 21

1) Your team, the L.A. Lakers, was picked before the season by a majority of NBA general managers to win the title in June. Many were influenced in large part by your return to the team after last January’s knee injury.

2) The Philadelphia Phillies destroyed Tampa like Daniel vs. Cobra Kai in game four the night before your b-day to take a commanding 3-1 lead. Beast Cole Hamels is set to pitch game five at home. The last time a Philly team won a championship was in 1983 when Dr. J’s 76ers beat your Lakers.

3) Illinois Senator Barak Obama could become the nation’s first African American president just eight days after your birthday, should all recent polling prove accurate on November 4, 2008. This will be the first election in which you can vote for your candidate of choice.

4) One of Wall Street’s worst months in history is about to come to a close, but now’s a good time to buy some real estate, ‘Drew!

5) Pop star Christina Aguilera is debuting her new music video “Keeps Gettin’ Better” on the internet, not MTV. Music videos actually existed when you were born.

6) Kim Kardashian celebrated her 28th birthday just six days before your 21st, though she was mostly at the hospital caring for her boo Reggie Bush, who was recovering from minor surgery on his knee.

Continue reading ‘Bynum’s B-day: Time Stamp’

Lakers Waive Coby Karl

Published

Mike Trudell

on October 27, 2008

in Training Camp and Transactions

. 0 Comments

The Lakers waived Coby Karl on Monday to trim the current roster down to 14 players.

An undrafted free agent signed by the Lakers last season, Karl appeared in 17 games to average 1.8 points and 0.8 boards in 4.2 minutes.

Karl was terrific, however, in 17 games with the L.A. D-Fenders of the D-league, as he averaged 17.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.1 steals in 37.6 minutes while posting a .411 3-point field goal percentage. In the playoffs, Karl managed 13.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals in 37.0 minutes.

The 6-5 guard from Boise State averaged 14.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists as a senior and was named First Team All-WAC. He scored 1,698 career points to rank third on Boise State’s all-time scoring charts, and is the current record holder for games played (127) and threes made (266).

Jackson, Bynum After Practice

Published

Mike Trudell

on October 25, 2008

in Andrew Bynum, Phil Jackson, Practice News and Training Camp

. 0 Comments

After Saturday’s practice at L.A.’s facility, we heard from Lakers head coach Phil Jackson and center Andrew Bynum. Here are some selected notes from the conversations:

Jackson:

Saturday’s was a relatively light, tactical practice.

Both Kobe Bryant and Sasha Vujacic responded well to playing in Friday’s win over Oklahoma City in Ontario, Calif.

Derek Fisher left practice late to go into the training room but Jackson did not hear any complaints or anticipate any problem.

Jackson didn’t bite too heavily on a question about the Bynum-Greg Oden matchup, though he did say it’d be interesting to watch and that he thought they may have played against each other previously.

Jackson added that while he was pleased with Bynum’s progress, we should credit his teammates for some terrific passes to the low post.

Reiterating what he’d said earlier, Jackson talked about how well Gasol has been playing.

Bynum:

The biggest thing that changed to him from early training camp to his terrific performance in the final game was simply playing time. Getting 29 minutes allowed him to get comfortable out there. Otherwise, it was just getting in better shape.

When asked about his matchup with Oden, Bynum suggested that he was focused on the entire Blazers team, not just Oden. He named Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and (injured) Martell Webster by name.

Bynum said he hasn’t played against Oden since an AAU tournament in sixth grade. Oden was four inches taller, apparently. “I think a lot’s changed since then,” he added.

His timing is getting better on both ends, the reasons for his alley-oops and blocked shots in the past two games especially.

The Lakers finally have a day off on Sunday, but will resume practicing on Monday.

Lakers Today: 10/25/08

Published

Ty Nowell

on October 25, 2008

in Lakers Today and Training Camp

. 0 Comments

And finally the pre-season is over and the games can start to count again.

The Lakers closed out their annual pre-season tour with a 6-2 record after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 105-94 on Friday night in Ontario’s brand new arena.

The Lakers closed their eight-game slate with a six-game winning streak to equal their best pre-season record since the 2005-06 season.

After a dismal defeat to the Clippers in Fresno everything started to click for the team’s second unit. Led by Jordan Farmar and Trevor Ariza, the reserves started running other team’s backups off the floor (kinda like the end of last regular season). Farmar ended up as the team’s leading scorer in the pre-season, averaging 12.3 points in just over 21-minutes per game. “He was really a spark plug for us this pre-season,” said head coach Phil Jackson.

Other pre-season notes: (ones off the top of my head, if you have others send us an email)

As the pre-season went on Andrew Bynum continued to find his rhythm, getting better with each contest. He looks ready for the season to start.

Pau Gasol shot a silly 64% from the field, actually lowering his percentage by going 3/5 last night.

Sasha Vujacic got his one game in. After going out on the first day of training camp, and subsequently being shut down for a week, it was nice to see the Slovenian sharpshooter get in some live action before the real thing starts. He also dominated the crowd before last night’s game. Don’t give Sasha a mic unless you want him to rock it.

Lamar Odom settling in with the second unit has been fun to watch. Only Phil Jackson knows what the Lakers rotations will look like on opening night and beyond, but if Lamar comes off the bench six-minutes into the game he’s going to cause a lot of problems for the opposing squad. His abilities shines in the open floor game that Farmar and Ariza have been leading and Odom’s overall talent is head-and-shoulders above most of the players he’ll be matching up with.

Bynum and Gasol have been starting together and getting better, but as Mike Trudell pointed out last night, the ability to rotate the two talented bigs in-and-out with different lineups is a “nasty” option to have.

More than anything, NO MAJOR INJURIES… Kobe bumped a knee, but showed last night that he’s good to go. Sasha returned and is ready for the regular season. Josh Powell should be ready to go for Tuesday after being held out of the past two games with a tweaked hamstring. Jackson said that this is the hardest he’s worked a team since he returned to the Lakers and pretty much everyone has come away better for it.

Sasha also told Mike Trudell last night that he elected himself President of the training room during this pre-season…

TODAY
Even though they’ve played five games in the last seven days, the team will return to the training facility for practice today.

Ontario: Post-Game Videos

Published

Ty Nowell

on October 25, 2008

in Lakers.com News, Phil Jackson, Sasha Vujacic, Training Camp and Video

. 0 Comments

Sasha Vujacic Post-Game

Phil Jackson Post-Game

Lakers - Thunder Running Diary

Published

Mike Trudell

on October 24, 2008

in In-Game, Running Diary and Training Camp

. 0 Comments

With the exception of reserve forward Josh Powell, you’re finally going to see a full complement of Lakers tonight, a fact we learned from Phil Jackson before the game as Kobe Bryant and Sasha Vujacic will both play.

Speaking of Vujacic, he absolutely killed the pregame introduction over the loudspeakers to the fans in Ontario, skillfully pausing after his “welcome to your first NBA game” line to a (not Oklahoma City) thunderous roar. That’s going to be hard to beat, Sasha. Well done.

As mentioned in a previous entry, this is indeed the first game in Ontario’s Citizen’s Business Bank Arena, and a sell-out crowd of around 11,000 has already created a fully-charged, college-like atmosphere that should be fun for everybody.

First Quarter
Seattle (oops - knew that was going to happen) errrr Oklahoma City has a big lineup with Jeff Green (6-9) at the three and Kevin Durant (6-9) at the two, coupled with the 7-0 Johan Petro and 6-10 Nick Collison up front. They might not be quite as bad as they look on paper, but they’re probably fighting with Memphis to avoid having the league’s worst record. I’d worry a bit about their transition defense…

Kobe looks to be feeling OK. Just two deep threes without a hint of rim to make it 6-4 Lakers early on, then a defense-drawing slash through the lane resulting in a wide-open Gasol layup. Looking just as sharp are Gasol and Bynum, who combined for 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, mostly right underneath the hoop, to give L.A. an 18-13 lead at the 6:03 mark. Bynum added a big swat in the lane and a steal, and has certainly looked a bit better in each of L.A.’s eight preseason games.

Odom was the first Laker off the bench, as expected, though we should see Vujacic soon. And so we would at the 4:05 mark, after Bynum’s second massive alley-oop jam of the quarter. That’s 10 points for ‘Drew. Crowd loving that, not to mention the 25-13 lead. The Laker offense has been spectacular, and the defense has forced nothing but jumpers from the visiting light blue with orange trim jerseys.

Yesterday in our Gameday article I mentioned how Kevin Durant loves to get his FGAs. I just looked at the stat sheet and he’s taken eight shots already. He’s only made two, meaning he’s about on track to match his shooting percentage from last year. Sure, he averaged 20.3 points as a rookie, but he takes more shots than almost anyone in the league, and they’re all jumpers! Plus he’s 6-9 and averaged just 2.4 boards a game. Doesn’t this anger anyone else? I would have taken either Al Horford or Luis Scola for Rookie of the Year over Durant, and I don’t think it was close. That’s just me though, I guess…

Lakers lead 30-22 after one.

Continue reading ‘Lakers - Thunder Running Diary’

Jackson: Bryant, Vujacic to Play

Published

Mike Trudell

on October 24, 2008

in Injury News, Josh Powell, Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, Podcast, Pre-Game, Sasha Vujacic and Training Camp

. 0 Comments

Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said prior to Friday evening’s game in Ontario that both Kobe Bryant and Sasha Vujacic would play against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Jackson expects Vujacic to see significant time after missing the previous seven preseason games with his ankle injury, while Bryant will play just enough to keep his hyperextended knee - which is apparently close to 100 percent already - loose.

While some question whether Bryant should even test the knee in a relatively meaningless preseason game, Jackson said that Bryant knows his body well enough at this stage of his career to make such a decision.

Certainly both pieces of information regarding Kobe and Sasha are good news for the Lakers. On the other hand, forward Josh Powell will be held out of tonight’s game due to the same strained left hamstring that caused him to miss Thursday night’s win against Charlotte. Powell did tell me that he’s “definitely” going to be ready for the season opener, and we’ll see if the training staff concurs next week.

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At the (brand new) Arena

Published

Mike Trudell

on October 24, 2008

in Miscellaneous and Training Camp

. 0 Comments

Key phrase in the title: “brand new.”

Tonight in Ontario, Calif., the Lakers literally open the so-fresh-and-so-clean Citizens Business Bank Arena with a nationally televised (ESPN) final game of the L.A. preseason against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It’s so new that as Ty and I walked into the lower bowl, we said, “Wow it smells like a new car” at the same time. The paint is fresh and bright around the building, the temperature is a cool contrast to the 90-degree mountain valley outside and there is staff scurrying around everywhere in final preparation.

Of course, not everything’s perfect - the TV cable isn’t yet connected, for example - but the people in the building have an excited but somewhat nervous anticipation that’s quite charming.

Moving forward, the building will be used for Ontario’s minor league hockey team, and has already booked concerts like Carrie Underwood and Metallica, but the craziest thing about the $150 million arena is that the city does not owe any money on it.

As reported in the Riverside Press Enterprise earlier this month, the building is mostly funded through revenue from city surplus funds and the sale of other property, an exception to the rule as many stadiums are built way under debt. In fact, the city of Ontario seems to have created a near ideal model for how to pay for city developments.

Fair enough. By the way, the arena is already sold out for tonight’s game, about which we’ll have much more in our live blog.

Talk to you in a few…